Automotive News Europe - March 2020 - 3

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE

ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS

Connecting to profits
T

he dashboard is fast becoming the
car's most valuable real estate, as
automakers seek to generate new revenue through wirelessly delivered services, features and upgrades. The need to
find additional revenue is growing more
urgent as global automotive production
flattens and new regulations and ownership habits threaten the traditional
business model. Because the market is
so wide open "the profits can be significantly higher from a margin perspective
than you would find anywhere else in the
industry," according to IHS Markit. Tesla
is leading the way, but German premium
brands are expanding and upgrading
their digital offerings, as we report in our
cover story (Pages 6-9).

mediate pathway to meeting tougher
CO2 targets that start to take effect
this year. Volkswagen Group brands will
show new plug-in hybrid versions of their
latest compacts, including the VW Golf,
Audi A3, Skoda Octavia and Seat Leon.
Renault will unveil a plug-in Megane
compact station wagon and hatchback.
Kia's plug-in hybrid version of the new
Sorento midsize SUV will make its debut at Geneva. In addition, the technology also will be prominent on the BMW
and Mercedes stands. When paired with
a larger battery, plug-in hybrid drivetrains can achieve CO2 emissions below
49 grams per kilometer, a threshold that
qualifies them for EU supercredits. That
means sales of those vehicles will count

Hyundai is bullish about the new i10's chances of
increasing its share of Europe's minicar segment after
the previous-generation car rose past the VW Up into
the segment's top five last year (Page 18).

electric motors and a gasoline engine
to produce 300 hp, making it the most
powerful model in Peugeot's lineup. The
automaker says the only difference that
customers will notice in the plug-in hybrid
version from the gasoline and diesel variants is that the spare tire under the cargo
floor on internal combustion versions is
replaced by a charging cable (Page 16).
Infotainment specialist Harman is positioning itself to automakers as a provider of "experiences" through connected
technology, and it has recently won a
major contract to supply the technology
for BMW's first 5G-connected car, the
iNext SUV. Harman Chief Operating Officer Michael Mauser, who will take over
as CEO on April 1, spoke with us about
how the supplier is making the connected car more cost-efficient (Page 20).
Infineon's automotive division president,
Peter Schiefer, says the German chipmaker expects to gain from the move
to add radar sensors and camera modules to cars to give them so-called Level
2-plus autonomy (Page 21).
European vehicle sales grew by just
1.4 percent to 15.3 million last year, but
volumes of SUVs and crossovers of every size and price grew by 13 percent
to 5.7 million, adding 650,000 annual
sales to a sector that now accounts for
37 percent of total European sales, up
from 33 percent in 2018 and 29 percent
in 2017. That is just one of the interesting facts derived from our annual segment-by-segment analysis of data from
JATO Dynamics (Pages 30-33).

The last time German automakers assembled fewer than 4.66 million light vehicles
on their home soil was 1996. The 9 percent decline in 2019 production followed
an equally steep drop in 2018, which
combined to shave roughly 1 million units
off the country's total vehicle output in
just 24 months. We look at whether the
slump will continue (Pages 10-11).

double this year to help automakers
achieve an overall fleet target of 95g/
km. Automakers see the technology as
offering most of the benefits of electric
cars in terms of hitting emissions targets, without tying customers to an asyet-incomplete charging network. Plugin hybrids can also be developed faster
than electric vehicles (Pages 12-14).

New plug-in hybrid cars will take center stage at the Geneva auto show this
month, overshadowing even electric
vehicles as automakers embrace a technology that offers perhaps the best im-

Speaking of plug-in hybrids, we recently
had the chance to test a Peugeot 3008
with the powertrain. The variant is offered with the option of front- or fourwheel drive. The 4wd version uses two

MARCH 2020

European Union regulators would like
consumers to drive electric vehicles to
reduce emissions, but is all of Europe
ready for the transition? I provide some
personal conclusions to this question in
our Final Word based on my three weeks
of living with a battery-powered car in
northwest Italy (Page 38).
Enjoy the issue!

Luca Ciferri,
Associate Publisher and Editor

www.autonewseurope.com

http://www.autonewseurope.com

Automotive News Europe - March 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Europe - March 2020